Greetings from CA Wildfire Rebuild

Many readers know that I live on a block where 8 neighbors' houses burned to the ground last November 15th. Here is my update on our progress.
This is my own front yard flag with a view to the neighbor's house. It didn't use to be that big. The house went from around 3000 square feet to 4500. Doesn't bother me at all. I'm happy for them.

This picture shows 2 houses around the corner. I like the flag in front (has been hanging there since November 2008) and the moon in the sky. There are still 4 properties on this street that have not yet begun to rebuild.

And this is the house on the corner. This family will be the first to move in. Hopefully in the next couple of months.

And a happy 4th of July to all of you.

Making Progress

You may be wondering how the rebuild is going here after the CA wildfires. I am pleased to announce that there are a couple of foundations and some wood going up for 2 of the 8 houses. Another foundation will be poured tomorrow. And our deck is coming along nicely.

Concrete Day

You may recall we are still rebuilding over here after the CA wildfires last November. Today I learned that the deck inspection *did* happen yesterday after all. Must have been late in the day. So I had to rush and get the camera quickly, as the concrete truck was due at 9am. Here are pics of the rebar and forms:

Freshly poured concrete deck foundation:

In the meantime, my neighbors were making mountains out of molehills:

And playing with trucks:

My house is crawling with men

Two guys are installing the new garage doors in front, and three guys are digging out the hillside to prepare the foundation for the new deck. You see that deck in the picture on the top of the blog? It burned to cinders in the CA wildfires last November. And the garage doors were damaged when the neighbors/firefighters used crowbars and feet to remove it to put out the garage fire. It was tacked back up temporarily, but today we will get our brand new garage doors. Yay! I can't wait to hear how quiet the new opener is. The old one was as loud as a jet engine.

That's 5 men working. Now all I need is for the gardeners and the pool guy to show up.

Azaleas in bloom

I love this time of year. These shrubs are right by my front door. It makes coming home such a pleasure.
Don't you love the funny things kids say? My 4-y-o boy noticed the storage unit/office that the contractor had installed on our neighbor's property, in preparation for rebuilding after the CA wildfires. He said from the back seat as we drove by, "Hey Mom, look. There's a jail!"

I Guess I'm stuck here for a while longer

Rental house, front view.


Back yard.


Staircase.

Here are some pictures of the rental house. I had better get used to it, apparently. I found some damage at the house yesterday that really set me back on my heels. I was all prepared to move in early next week. The guys were taking the old insulation out of the attic and vacuuming, getting ready to put in the new insulation. I insisted on going up there myself to make sure it was clean enough. I want *all* the dust out of there, as long as we are going to all this trouble. They called me and said it was time. I climbed up the ladder and hoisted myself into the attic. Balancing on the rafter beams, I crab-walked over to an open space and wiped my hand over the dry-wall/ceiling. It was still dirty. The guys were using a shop vac, but it wasn't doing a great job. As I inched my way back to the opening, I noticed that a crossbeam right in front of my face was cracked in the middle, near a knothole. I thought, hmmm, that's odd. I pointed it out to the guys. Then we started looking around at the beams, and found that there were 4 truss beams in a row, snapped in the middle, and bowed out to the side. Strange, almost as if a giant had stepped on the roof and squashed the house. There may be more broken trusses. I didn't even look at any other areas of the attic. I called the insurance agent; I was lucky he answered his phone at 5pm on New Year's Eve. He told me that our contractor needed to get an engineer up there to see what was going on. So I left a message for my contractor. He is taking the weekend off.

My theory is that the helicopter water drops caused this damage. After the fire, the neighbor said that there were 3 water drops directly onto our house.

Later I spoke to a fire captain who told me that helicopter water drops were dangerous, and that they needed to be careful not to drop them onto houses with people in them, because folks can get hurt. I did a search online and found that the helicopters carry 700 to 2000 gallons, so at the very least, that is 2.5 tons of weight being dropped onto the roof from a height.

I'm bummed. I was all set to move back in. Now I have a house with no insulation; I had to turn the heat off again. I have to call the mattress company to tell them to delay delivery again. I have to call ServPro to tell them not to bother coming out to clean the attic now. And I have to gear up for more weeks in a rental house with no good internet connection. I'm regretting not signing up for the cable internet. Blah.